Modern Movers: Emma Watson

Remember how Emma Watson delivered that neat speech about feminism to the UN a few weeks ago? Because it was all over cyberspace. Seriously; it founds its way onto the non-women’s college part of my Facebook and I saw gifs of it on tumblr and everything. But in case you were hiding under a rock and didn’t know about it, or were just too lazy to watch, I’m here to tell you that you should.

While the speech was good and brought up some great points — the anti-men stigma that feminism carries, how gender stereotypes negatively impact men as well as women — I am most glad for this speech because it came from Emma Watson’s mouth. I hate to be cynical, but I can’t help feeling like most people these days do not care about important issues unless they are neatly packaged and handed to the masses by a celebrity. I would thus like to thank Emma Watson for using her power and fame to speak very clearly about a topic that pertains to everyone.

Of course, not everyone loved the speech. I myself have a few complaints. The speech was advocating for men specifically to take up the feminist fight, which I think is important, but the fact that it was so focused on men (even the name of the campaign is “HeForShe”) worries me. Why not call for everyone to take action, including those women who are afraid to call themselves feminists? And why exclude trans people who, despite not identifying as men or women, are still affected by this issue as much as (and often more than) everyone else?